The second annual brand-awareness snapshot of the National Portrait Gallery is again positive, with indicators moving in the right direction – for the Gallery and for Australia’s cultural engagement.
From 19% in March 2015, to a whopping 36% in March 2016, 18 to 24-year-olds indicate a ‘real passion’ or are ‘reasonably interested’ in the arts and Australian history. ‘The increase in young people’s interest in the arts and history could be a society-wide trend,’ said John Matthews, Managing Director, Jigsaw Strategic Research, partner with the Gallery in this project.
“It doesn’t surprise me that young people are gravitating to the arts. In other work we do with youth we see that they crave real life stories, they look for authentic role models and that they are happy to challenge our preconceptions of them as having goldfish attention spans.”
Director of External Relations, Diana O’Neil, is thrilled with the continued positive support for the Gallery from the Australian public in the 2016 survey.
‘It is great to see that 7 in 10 Australians have continued to indicate their support of the Gallery’s mission: to increase the understanding and appreciation of the Australian people … through portraits. This feedback is affirming; the work the Gallery does is appreciated by many Australians,’ said Diana.
‘The survey has also shown a development in loyalty indicators reflecting a strengthening in the public’s cognisance, engagement and satisfaction in relation to the Gallery. We strive to make a visitor’s experience special and it is fantastic to see visitors planning to return to the Gallery based on their previous trip.’
Other highlights for the Gallery include:
- Awareness of the Gallery has increased among younger age groups and people in New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria.
- Engagement with the Gallery by people from every state and territory has increased.
- Online engagement by the Australian public in general has substantially increased.
- More Western Australians are likely to engage, particularly via the website and the likelihood of their visiting a touring exhibition.
- While a small sample size, Tasmania has shown improvement in engagement generally and specifically has an interest in visiting a touring exhibition.
The research fieldwork was conducted on 7 March, 2016, via an online omnibus.
